Background
William Bradford was born in Austerfield, West Riding of Yorkshire in 1590. His father, a yeoman farmer, died when William was only a year old.
William Bradford was born in Austerfield, West Riding of Yorkshire in 1590. His father, a yeoman farmer, died when William was only a year old.
During his youth, William Bradford studied history, philosophy, theology, Latin, and Greek, and later he studied Hebrew. Bradford studied at Leiden University and later became apprenticed to a silk dyer.
As a boy in England, he was caught up in the fervor of the Protestant Reformation and when he was only 12 became a dedicated member of one of the separatist churches that made up the left-wing of Puritanism. Seven years later he joined a group of nonconformists who migrated to Holland (1609) in search of religious freedom. Dissatisfied with the lack of economic opportunity there, he helped organize an expedition of about 100 “Pilgrims” to the New World in 1620. They made up about half the passengers on the Mayflower. Aboard ship, Bradford was one of the framers of the historic Mayflower Compact, an agreement for voluntary civil cooperation that became the foundation of the Plymouth government. The following year he was unanimously chosen as governor of the New World settlement and was re-elected 30 times, serving all but five years until 1656.
Bradford was married to Dorothy May. In 1617, the Bradfords had their first child John Bradford.